Scheduling zero P5 opponents OOC is a bigger sin than not going from 8 to 9 conference games, sorry. When it comes to the conference games, you've got a lot of entities and opinions and powers out of your control.
Your school's OOC schedule is on you alone. You either decide to schedule someone that can beat you or you don't.
No, it's not.
Going to 9 conference games is the quickest, easiest, surest path to increase the number of total P5 teams on the schedule, because the conference can't control schools' individual OOC schedules but it certainly can control the in-conference schedules.
And the television broadcasting partners-- who wield the most control over conference decisions of ANY oustide entity-- are absolutely on-board with this. In the case of the SEC, it would increase their inventory of SEC vs. SEC games rather than SEC vs. Sunbelt or SEC vs. FCS games. They'd love that, and would pay more for it.
I'm not sure why you bring up fans complaining about the SEC scheduling, when you're complaining about OOC scheduling. Both are issues that can and should be addressed if the goal is to level the playing field.
Nobody here is disagreeing that the SEC currently has no incentive to do so. That's not the discussion being had.
We're not talking about the current system at all, rather we're fantasizing about implementing new rules to force schools into behaviors that they're currently unwilling to perform, behaviors that are intended to level the playing field and increase the level of competition across all conferences. And if that's the goal, then it starts with creating a rule that forces everyone to play the same number of conference games. And then if schools are still unwilling to schedule a 10th P5 game, the next rule is to to force them to do so.
